Inside look at Utah Hockey Club

NHL.com is providing in-depth roster, prospect and fantasy analysis for each of its 32 teams from Aug. 1-Sept. 1. Today, the Utah Hockey Club.

While most of the NHL is preparing for new arrivals in the form of draft picks and free agents ahead of the 2024-25 season, things are a little different in Utah. Players and staff for the Utah Hockey Club are picking out houses, choosing school systems and finding their way to the nearest grocery store.

But once training camp starts, the Utah Hockey Club will get started on a season that it hopes will end in a competitive spring -- and maybe even in a spot in the Stanley Cup Playoffs.

General manager Bill Armstrong won’t go quite that far, though.

“I really like the way it’s come together,” Armstrong told NHL.com in late July. “I like the way the organization is set up. It’s very rare that you don’t have a bad contract on your team, and we’ve set ourselves up to now make that next step.

“But it also has to happen organically. You can’t just make it happen on paper. The team has to make a step on the ice. And they have a chance to do that this year. If we can be playing meaningful games down the stretch, it’s going to be a hell of a season."

The Utah Hockey Club officially joined the NHL on June 13 and purchased the contracts of Arizona Coyotes executives, coaches and players, taking over a rebuild that is in its fourth year. To go along with a bright young core, the organization has accumulated and hit on draft picks to bolster its prospect pool by taking on contracts and developing a scouting staff.

It has gotten them to the point where Armstrong will call his charges “a decent team.”

And though everyone in Utah, from the new owners to its newest fans, would welcome a playoff spot, that’s something Armstrong believes is a goal for next season. For this season, he’s keeping his expectations more tempered.

“If you look at our roster, how far we stripped it down, it’s very rare that a team going through the rebuild coming out of the fourth year makes the playoffs,” Armstrong said. “We’ve got to set realistic goals here. I don’t see us [in the postseason] -- you never know -- but it’s unlikely. What we want to do is take that step where we know we can be in the hunt and play meaningful games.

“If we can do that coming down the stretch and be driving in the final 20 games, it’s going to give us a lot of momentum for the following season."

Still, Armstrong went out and made a splash before the opening of free agency on July 1, acquiring Mikhail Sergachev in a trade with the Tampa Bay Lightning and John Marino in a trade with the New Jersey Devils. The two defensemen will strengthen Utah’s defense, which ranked 25th in the League last season (3.34 goals against per game). Armstrong said he felt that the team had been able to build its base of forwards through the draft but was thin on the defensive side.

“We’re basically trying to trade our way into that group of building a good D,” he said, acknowledging that Utah does have some highly regarded defensive prospects on the way in Dmitriy Simashev and Maveric Lamoureux. “That core is slowly coming together. You’re trying to build a good top four that can play major minutes and give us some stability on the back side, which we haven’t had in the past three years.”

With those defensemen and a forward group that is led by Clayton Keller and some rapidly developing young players -- Logan Cooley, Dylan Guenther, Matias Maccelli and Josh Doan -- it’s easy to understand that the future is bright for Utah, which gets a fresh start this season.

“I think the excitement level, from not only the players but the staff going there, seeing the excitement in the fans’ eyes, it’s just been an amazing experience,” Armstrong said.

The Utah players saw that firsthand when they were greeted at the airport on April 24 by hundreds of local youth hockey players, followed by a welcome event at Delta Center that was packed by fans.

“Everywhere you go, they’re just hockey crazed,” Armstong said.

That helps. It helps that the players and staff know now where their long-term future will be. It helps that their new home has received them so well.

And now it’s up to them to reward that excitement.

“It was like the sun suddenly appeared and the clouds separated,” Armstrong said. “Now the franchise could finally take a step.”